BEIJING — U.S. leaders have accused China of hacking into American companies’ files, bullying
U.S. allies in Asia and treating dissidents and ethnic minorities inhumanely. But pay little heed
to the appearance of a hostile Sino-U.S. relationship.

That’s the message U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivered yesterday at the conclusion of a
two-day meeting between Chinese and U.S. officials in Beijing.

The two countries, Kerry said, “are moving past the differences that have accented the
relationship in most-recent months.”

U.S. delegates and their Chinese counterparts, he said, struck agreements this week on several
issues, including cooperation on combating climate change, preventing the proliferation of nuclear
weapons and reducing the chances of maritime mishaps.

At a news conference, Kerry and U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew noted that the United States
still has serious differences with China. But the two sides have apparently agreed to disagree in a
way that, according to Kerry, seeks to alter conventional wisdom about interactions between
superpowers.

“The U.S. and China are committed to a new model of relations, based on practical cooperation,
but also constructive management of differences,” Kerry said.

“We recognize the need to avoid falling into the trap of a zero-sum competition, and that
recognition is driving our partnership on issues from climate change to wildlife trafficking to
Afghanistan to peacefully resolving the Iranian nuclear issue.”

Kerry and Lew were in Beijing for the annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a
chance for American business and government leaders to interact with their Chinese counterparts on
a range of issues.

Kerry said the meeting was one of the best of its kind he’d attended, and at yesterday’s news
conference, he and Lew glossed over tensions between China and President Barack Obama that many
analysts say are growing almost monthly.

The biggest flash point is China’s increasingly confrontational stance against Japan, the most
important U.S. ally in Asia. China’s president, Xi Jinping, visited South Korea last week in a trip
aimed at reminding Korea and the rest of Asia of Japan’s past war atrocities. This week, Chinese
state media started publishing lurid “confessions” of Japanese World War II criminals that are sure
to whip up emotions at home.

Cyberwarfare is another source of conflict. In May, the U.S. Justice Department formally
indicted members of the Chinese military on charges of hacking U.S. corporate secrets, part of an
alleged scheme to help state-owned enterprises in China. Beijing has angrily rejected the
accusations.

Yesterday,
The New York Times reported that hackers traced to China had attempted to break into
federal databases and gain information on government workers with security clearances.

Asked about it yesterday, Kerry said he’d learned about the alleged breach just before arriving
in Beijing and didn’t raise it with his Chinese counterparts, partly because it was still under
investigation.